High School D×D is a Light Novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi, illustrated by Miyama-Zero and published by Fujimi Shobo that has been adapted into a manga (with a Lighter and SofterSpin-Off titled Asia and Koneko's Secret Contracts) and a popular anime produced by TNK which continued with a fourth season premiering in April 2018, this time animated by Passione. The anime is rated R15+ in Japan. The series is well-known for mixing fanservice with a compelling story and developed characters. A lot of characters, with many of those based on almost all religions and mythologies. It can be best summed up as a mix-and-stir of To Love-Ru and Shin Megami Tensei.

Our hero, IsseiHyoudou, is a second-year student at the prestigious mostly-girls school Kuoh Academy. Life is great when he is asked out by a girl named Yuuma Amano. Having never had a girlfriend before, he accepts. The date goes well... until Yuuma reveals herself as a Fallen Angel, stabs Issei through the stomach and leaves him to die. Luckily, Rias Gremory, the school's beautiful, crimson-haired sweetheart, and high-class Devil finds him and resurrects him to act as her servant Devil and work for her and three other Devil students in the school's Occult Research Club. The Club soon stumbles upon mysterious plans that threaten to possibly undermine their lives.

Actual Pacifist: Asia has absolutely no way to deal damage or hinder enemies in combat. She just has the series most powerful healing ability and later becomes a Stone Wall with her Fafnir armor.

A-Cup Angst: Koneko. It even becomes a plot point in the first OVA: a demon creates a plant that gives girls big breasts. Issei, being the pervert that he is, actually tries standing up for the monster, thinking that maybe big breasts aren't all bad. Koneko, on the other hand, has a huge Battle Aura, and has a gigantic tree trunk over her head, ready to take that thing out.

Adaptation Distillation: Subverted with the third anime season, BorN. The season is essentially an adaptation of volumes 5 through 7, just condensed and with some rather major divergences, especially in the second half. It was one of the major factors for Ichiei Ishibumi writing the EX spin-off light novel, turning the last four episodes of that season into an Alternate Continuity.

In the light novel, the scene where Rias gives Issei 1,000 spankings as punishment for going behind her back is treated as a brief gag. In the anime, it's expanded to a full scene where Issei tries to absolve Koneko of any blame, so she won't be punished alongside him.

Every anime episode has at least one scene that isn't in the light novels. Some show events that Issei hears about but doesn't witness (e.g., Rias luring out and killing the three fallen angels), while others are shameless Fanservice that ties into the overall plot loosely if at all (e.g., Rias and Sona's sauna scenes).

Adaptational Modesty: The manga greatly cuts down the frequency of nipples displayed. For that matter, breasts are also smaller.

Adults Are Useless: Averted. The adults are a lot more competent than the children in this series.

Kokabiel's attempt to start another Great War fails: the three of the seven Excaliburs he stole are retrieved and sent back to Rome; Kokabiel's plot to kill the Gremory family have been foiled; and on top of that, he ends up being overpowered by Vali and captured by Azazel to be frozen in Cocytus.

The Khaos Brigade's attempts to take over of the Underworld and plan to kill Great Red goes up in smoke: Katerea is killed by Azazel after her attempts to foil a peace treaty between the Three Factions fail; Creuserey is killed by Sirzechs and Azazel while trying to avenge Katerea; Shalba is overpowered by Issei; the Hero Faction's attempt to transform Yasaka into the Nine-Tailed Fox and summon Great Red are foiled thanks to Sun Wukong and Yu-Long teaming up with Issei to beat them in Kyoto; Shalba's attempt to exact revenge on the Devils leads to his death; and the Old Satan Faction is dissolved after their leaders' deaths.

The Alliance: The Christian faction as a whole (includes angels, fallen angels, and devils).

All Just a Dream: The 2nd special episode where Issei has an erotic dream of Akeno giving him a private lesson. Upon waking up, he finds himself hugging Asia, which prompts an angry response from Rassei.

All Men Are Perverts: We start with Issei, but he's definitely not the most perverted guy ever. The only male character who doesn't seem to even be remotely close as a pervert is ironically Vali, his rival.

Almighty Janitor: Issei himself is this seeing as Rias had to use all 8 of her pawn chess pieces to even have him as a servant. Saji is also this to a lesser degree.

Alternate Continuity: In the backstory for EX, Loki breaks out of prison in the future and curses Asia, then goes back in time with the Underworld Lifeforms and causes havoc with the past, resulting in various new timelines, one of which is BorN.

Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Plus older siblings, when they show up on Class Inspection Day. To give you an idea, Sona's older sister Serafall Leviathan, one of the four demon overlords, shows up cosplaying as a Magical Girl (from the Show Within a Show) and acting like a young ditzy teen, much to the former's embarrassment. Rias's father, Zeoticus, also takes some embarrassing footage of her in class, and shows it to Issei's parents during the same arc. And then, judging from how his parents act... No wonder Issei is so perverted.

Arbitrary Skepticism: Subverted when Santa and aliens are brought up. Issei (in the former situation) and Kiba (in the latter) briefly sound skeptical before reminding themselves that they live in a world where All Myths Are True.

The Armies of Heaven: While they don't exactly do much fighting, the angels do have a large military presence in the series.

Art Shifted Sequel: For the fourth season HERO, the anime shifts its art style from the sharper, shonen-esque style of the first three seasons to an art style more similar to the light novel illustrations, as it will be animated by Passione.

Subverted with Asia. Even after becoming a devil, she is still very devout and attempts to pray and read the Bible frequently. However, she is always stopped midway by sharp headaches that emerge as a result of devils not being allowed near the presence of God. She along with Xenovia are eventually allowed to worship freely again after Issei asks Archangel Michael to give them permission post the three factions uniting in peace.

Happens with Xenovia as well, even after it is revealed that the original God died in the last war.

Asshole Victim: Diodora Astaroth being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice is awful enough, but after seeing his murderous nature, his lust and his attempt to rape a nun such as Asia Argento, one can only conclude there's not much sympathy to be had for a devil like him.

Issei is killed by Raynare, a Fallen Angel, in the first volume, but is revived by Rias as a devil.

Asia is also killed by Raynare at the end of the first volume when the latter steals her Sacred Gear. She too is revived by Rias as a Bishop.

This happens to Issei again after being "killed" by Shalba in Volume 11.

Badass Adorable: The girls may look beautiful but most of them are strong enough to easily destroy buildings.

Badass Army: Take all of the crew mentioned below in Badass Crew plus the Heaven's Brave Saints squad, use Executive order to form a special counter-terrorist task force, and you get the SOCOM-esque D×D team. Azazel, Sirzechs, and Michael even plan on making a JSOC version, codenamed "ExE"

Badass Fingersnap: How Issei activates his Dress Break finisher after tagging his targets.

Badass Normal: Sairaorg lacks any special power but trained his body hard enough that he can defeat any of the devils in his generation with ease. Only Issei can stand up to him among the new generation of devils.

Bad Present: The last three episodes of BorN expicitly takes place in an alternate reality thanks to Loki traveling back in time from the future.

Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: Most of, if not all the yuri scenes between the girls of the Occult Research Club are done just to get Issei into the mood before the compulsory Moment Killer.

Barbie Doll Anatomy: In the anime's opening the girls (most noticeably Asia) have nipples but the crotches of barbie dolls, but early in the manga even Issei lacks nipples, though in the manga the girls use Godiva Hair too.

Bash Brothers: Whenever Kiba isn't laying on the Ho Yay subtext on Issei, they have this sort of relationship.

Batman Gambit: In Volume 19, everyone figures that the Khaos Brigade would try to attack once the battle with the rogue exorcists started dying down, so they set up countermeasures to shut down their Evil Dragon Mooks and sealed off the area from them pulling a "Villain: "Exit, Stage Left!"".

Battle Couple: Even after becoming lovers, Issei and Rias can still kick ass.

Battle Harem: All of the main female characters in the Occult Research Club are very competent members of the team in battle, and they all eventually become part of Issei's slowly-growing harem (though not initially).

Be Careful What You Wish For: Subverted. Issei gets his wish to get a girlfriend when Raynare asks him out. Unfortunately, he gets more than what he bargains for when Raynare kills him. Then, Rias shows up and becomes his first real girlfriend.

Bed Full of Women: Happens various times to Issei throughout the story, though the crowning example is at the start of Volume 14. He even gets kicked out his own bed due to just how many girls are beside him.

Bedmate Reveal: In volume 1, a naked Issei wakes up after getting injured by Dohnaseek and discovers an equally naked Rias sleeping next to him.

Belly Dancer: In the second OVA from Season 1, Issei becomes possessed by the mummy of an Egyptian Magician named Unas, who is just as perverted as Issei. Unas claims that he'll only release him if they remove the curse that binds him. The methods of removing it being perverted in nature; the first is Rias dance in a skimpy belly dancer outfit.

Big Bad: There are various antagonists in the series whose are responsible for all the danger in it.

Volume 1: Raynare, the fallen angel who kills Issei and Asia.

Volume 2: Riser Phenex, the pureblood devil son of a high-class family and Rias's arrogant fiance.

Volume 3: Kokabiel, a rogue fallen angel who has stolen the pieces of Excalibur.

Volume 4: Katerea Leviathan, a member of the Old Satan Faction who attacks the club at the peace conference.

Volume 6: Diodora Astaroth, the strange heir of the Astaroth clan who's obsessed with Asia and has been coordinating an Evil Plan to kidnap her since the very beginning, with Shalba Beelzebub acting as the Greater-Scope Villain.

Volume 7: Loki, an evil Norse God.

Volume 11-12 and 24: Hades.

Volume 18-20: Rizevem Lucifer becomes the most powerful member of the Khaos Brigade through his leadership of the Qlippoth Faction.

Volume 21: Trihexa becomes the main threat to the heroes until it's sealed.

Big Damn Heroes: Rias and her crew frequently save their allies from time to time.

Big Fancy House: Rias's house in the Underworld and later on, Issei's house becomes this.

Big "NO!": Rias when her mother asks Kiba to clear out her room of the wooden bears she's been collecting.

Bishōnen: Issei, Kiba, Sairaorg, Vali, Cao Cao... Many of the boys in the series are quite nice-looking.

Bishoujo: All of the main girls and most of the supporting ones are attractive women.

At the end of the first arc, Raynare and her mooks are dead, Asia and Issei join the Occult Research Club after Rias transforms them into devils and Issei and Rias become lovers after he defeats Riser, but Raynare's betrayal has taken a toll on Issei's emotions and the Fallen Angels now know of his Sacred Gear.

In the second arc, Kokabiel has been captured; Kiba comes to terms with his past; the Excalibur swords are recovered; Xenovia and Irina are transformed into a devil and an angel, respectively; Azazel leads a successful peace conference with the Three Factions; Katerea, Creuserey and Diodora killed, Azazel becomes the club's advisor; and Xenovia and Irina reconcile with Asia. However, Xenovia is excommunicated from the Church, Vali escapes and Shalba is still out there.

Surprisingly, the canon spin-off EX revealed that the girls in Issei's harem will have a truly bittersweet future: Issei succeeded in his goal of becoming the "Harem King" and is revealed to have married every girl in his harem. On the downside, due to Issei's fame in Underworld, he's too busy beating up supernatural invaders to the point of almost (and potentially) neglecting his wives and kids. Lampshaded by the author, who said he wanted an ending where the characters don't have a 100% happy future.

Black Comedy Rape: Downplayed in the English dub of the first rating game. After Issei uses Dress Break on three of Riser's pawns, Sona's response is "It's a little rapey".

Boobs of Steel: Inverted, at least as far as the Occult Research Club goes. Rias and Akeno (the most buxom) are primarily magic users, and the club's strongest physical fighters are Xenovia (around the median) and Koneko (the flattest).

The anime begins and concludes with the same scenes for each of the three seasons, with slight differences.

The final scene of BorN is one for TNK's entire run. Their first outing has Rias watching Issei and his friends from afar in the Occult Research Club's building and she does the same here, this time watching the entire Occult Research Club.

Breather Episode: Episode 7 of season 2 is a fairly lighthearted pool episode, following some rather brutal fighting from the previous one.

Brick Joke: Sirzechs' suggestion to Issei to use Gift on Rias's breasts in Volume 4. Seven volumes later, it shows Issei replenishing his aura at the cost of Rias's breasts shrinking.

Broad Strokes: While Hero retcons the last four episodes of BorN out of existence, it does retain some of the storylines in volume 7 such as Koneko healing Issei's life force from his Juggernaut Drive.

Broken Masquerade: Issei's parents find out about his true nature in Volume 20 after being forced to drink dragon blood by Belial and Rizevem.

Raynare probably shouldn't have picked a fight with Rias and Issei like that. Also, her mooks mocked Rias to her face regarding Issei's trauma. It did not go well for them, at all.

The Old Satan Faction intends to kill off the Four Great Satans, who are viewed by them as unworthy successors. It backfires on them big time when the faction's leaders are killed.

Diodora decides to underestimate Issei's powers as the Red Dragon Emperor when he attempts to rescue Asia. It doesn't work.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Anybody who is in the high ranks are this. Sirzechs, Serafall, Azazel, Odin... take your pick.

Butterfly of Doom: Loki's alteration of the anime's timeline leads to the events of BorN.

Butt-Monkey: Compare everyone in the Occult Research Club and Issei. A good amount of the time Issei is going to take the brunt of some damage from events like sports, rumors, or from Azazel's crazy experiments.

In Volume 3, Xenovia and Irina recognize that Asia is a heretic, which harkens back to her backstory in volume 1 when she was branded as a heretic and exiled from the Church.

In Volume 7, Koneko dresses up in a white dress and enters her One-Winged Angel form to heal Issei's life force after using Juggernaut Drive in the same manner that Akeno used when she tries to heal him of his dragon power in volumes 3 and 4.

Invoked by Ichiei Ishibumi when he wrote EX, which effectively retcons the last four episodes of BorN (such as Loki using his curse on Rias and Issei) out of canon into an Alternate Continuity.

Given that the fourth anime season's first episode reboots the end of volume 6 before going straight into volume 9, Hero ignores the last three episodes of BorN in favor of only needing the audience to be familiar with the light novels that particular season has adapted and the first eight episodes of that season.

Can't Catch Up: Beginning to show shades of this in the light novels in regards to the other members compared to Issei and Kiba, but especially Issei. They both start off as relatively weak members of the Occult Club with Issei being by far the weakest and Kiba being only around Koneko's level at best. Rias and Akeno at this point were far stronger. Then Kiba and Issei master Balance Breaker and everyone is left coughing in the dust. This is best exemplified when Issei was able to beat Sairaorg Bael using his Balance Breaker whereas Kiba, Xenovia and Rossweisse (the three strongest in the Occult Club with Kiba being by far the stronger of the three) only managed to cut off an arm of Sairaorg without Balance Breaker and the rest likely couldn't even scratch him. Right now, Issei is by far the strongest member of the Occult Research Club, with Kiba just behind. This has been subverted in the later volumes, as the girls begin to acquire their own methods of fighting at that level. Issei remains the strongest, but the others are no longer irrelevant.

An in-universe example with Koneko. As a Nekoshou, Koneko can bear children even at her age. If she did, both she and the child would likely die. Issei tells her they should wait, and she agrees.

Cat Fight: Rias and Akeno are prone to hurling insults and magic blasts at each other while competing for Issei.

Cat Girl: The Nekomata. Koneko and her elder sister Kuroka are a special variant called the Nekoshou.

Cerebus Syndrome: The series gets an overall darker tone for the fourth story arc, eventually culminating with the self-sealing of Sirzechs and the Archangels to defeat Trihexa. Ishibumi, however, stated that for the fifth and final arc of the story the series will go back to its humorous, fanservice-happy roots.

Chainsaw Good: Riser's two pawns, who are also twins, uses this against Issei.

Charles Atlas Superpower: While there are plenty of magic spells and supernatural powers being thrown around, some characters manage to weigh in purely by physical skill. A shining example is Sairaorg, who is one of the strongest physical fighters in the serieseven without his Breakdown the Beast with nothing to his name but hard work and determination.

Chess Motifs: The very nature of the Ratings Games, where players in a team are designated either as King, Queen, Bishop, Rook, Knight or Pawn. Within the Occult Research Team, Rias is the King, Akeno as the Queen, Kiba and Xenovia as Knights, Asia and Gasper as Bishops (with Ravel as a free agent from Riser's team), Koneko and Rossweisse as Rooks, and Issei using up all of Rias's eight Pawn pieces.

Asia showing the holy water to the club room proves instrumental to Issei when he needed to defeat Riser.

Back in Volume 4, Issei absorbed some of Vali's powers by infusing a part of the White Dragon Emperor's shard in him, thus being able to use Divine Dividing with only a Million-to-One Chance of it working.

In Volume 10, while Issei's almost about to lose consciousness, one of the past White Dragon Emperors appeared to him and told him to never give up and used its halving abilities to make the remnants of the past Red Dragon Emperors lose their grip on Issei. He then gets to use Illegal Trident Cardinal Crimson Queen.

In volume 16, Issei and Ddraig figure out a new more permanent use for the White Dragon Emperor's power, making lots of small white dragon statuettes that float around him, reflecting and dividing the power of enemy attacks (Possibly only working during the previously mentioned Cardinal Crimson Queen).

Chekhov's Gunman: Quite a few in this series that were mentioned at best make an appearance:

At the end of Volume 1 Rias alludes to her having already used her first bishop piece. The boy she used it on, Gasper Vladi, returns to become a part of the club in Volume 4.

Back in volume 1, Asia's past reveals that she healed a devil and that she was exiled from the church. Five volumes later, that same devil reappears in front of Asia and turns out he planned the entire thing because he wanted to break down Asia.

Volume 4 has Akeno alluding that she's a half-Fallen Angel half-devil and that she's unwilling to forgive her father Baraqiel for not being able to save her mother Shuri. Three volumes later, he makes an appearance and they finally get to resolve their issues too.

Volume 10 has a boy who couldn't make it into the autograph event, but Issei is able to sign an autograph for him backstage and tell him to not cry at all. At the climax of his and Sairaorg's match, that same kid encourages the other kids that Oppai Dragon will never give up, thus kids reaching out to him to keep him from giving into Juggernaut Drive.

Chick Magnet: Not so much in the beginning Issei, but after being reborn...so many hot women are after him.

Chivalrous Pervert: Issei. Sure, he might be an unabashed pervert who is eternally enticed by boobs, but he treats women with due respect and dearly loves his harem, to the point that maiming it either physically or psychologically warrants death. Just ask Shalba and Riser!

The Chosen Many: For something to be so rare, there sure are a lot of Sacred Gear users in the setting. That's not counting, according to Ichiei Ishibumi, the thirteen Longinus users, one of which is Issei's Boosted Gear.

Church Militant: It seems the church in this setting has special squads of assassins and exorcists to deal with the supernatural.

Episode 8 of BorN shows Asia fade away and presumably die just moments after being rescued from Diodora.

Volume 19 also ends this way, with Riser and Ravel both being MIA after their Rating Game against Diehauser Belial.

Clingy Jealous Girl: Rias is like unto Belldandy with how jealous she gets over other girls wanting Issei around. She's perfectly diplomatic about most things except any deals involving Issei. Then, she'll glomp him into Marshmallow Hell just to show whoever is asking that he's hers and hers alone.

Asia shows signs of it in volume 3, Rias as well. Then...Xenovia, Akeno, Irina, and Koneko just slightly.

The "clingy" part gets turned Up to Eleven in volume 14, and it is adorable.

To give some context to the above, the girls are acting extremely clingy towards Issei because he freaking died and they are understandably reluctant to let him out of their sight. Issei mentions this to Kiba, who (politely) tells him to shut up and let them do what they want.

In Episodes 4 and 5, as Asia's Sacred Gear is stolen, her top breaks apart. This remains consistent throughout her death scene in the following episode.

Issei's "ultimate move" that Asia helps him practise at the training camp is DressBreak, a move that completely destroys his enemies' clothing, which outright got banned in Rating Games after the first game was over.

In Episode 10, when Koneko gets hit by one of Riser's traps, her already torn-apart outfit is completely destroyed.

SLASH/DØG, which serves as a prequel to Datimes;D, was originally published in 2006. By 2014, it was rebooted into the version we know today and the 2006 version was formally discontinued.

One particularly evil Norse god inflicts a curse on Asia before going to the past to wreak havoc on the anime's timeline with interdimensional monsters called Underworld Lifeforms, leading to the events of BorN. Fortunately, Issei's children travel back in time to capture Loki and learn how to undo the curse, with the implication being that the future Three Powers and their allies are planning to erase the BorN timeline (and any other timelines Loki has created) from existence. Unfortunately, it ends on a Sequel Hook before they can actually do so.

The first episode of Hero begins with a more faithful reboot of the volume 6 finale and as such, it has no connection to the BorN continuity.

Averted. While there are certain church members who are clearly on the evil and immoral side, most notably the freelance devil bounty hunter, Freed Sellzen, they are shown as being few and far between, and are swiftly excommunicated from the church once their wicked actions come to light.

Even the members who form La Résistance later are only doing so because hey can't deal with suddenly having to throw hundreds of years of hatred and all their personal pain away like it was meaningless. The Leaders of The Alliance recognize this and instead of crushing them, purposefully have them fight people too strong for them to kill but not strong enough to defeat them, so they can let all of their suppressed hatred out and move on. They peacefully surrender afterward.

Continuity Nod: In a meta sense, the conversation between Rias and Sona in Episode 4 of BorN, regarding a hypothetical Rating Game between them. In the light novels, the fifth volume is where said Rating game takes place - the anime, however, incorporates elements of volume seven in addition to the previous two, and this doesn't happen due to Loki's involvement in developing alternate realities, one of which is where the last four episodes of BorN takes place in. Fortunately, Hero retconned the BorN timeline out of existence.

Cool Big Sis: Rias and Akeno are described as this towards the entire school.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Most of the time, Issei just acts like a horny teen with nothing on his mind but boobs - his main 'ambition' is to have his own Harem, and he tends to dramatically proclaim his next 'target'... such as "sucking on Rias-sempai's breasts!" Even after he becomes a Devil, he's still just a 'pawn', he's terrible at making Pacts with mortals, and can't even use the Magic Circles to travel unaided. However... when he's forced to fight, particularly in defense of the girls he cares about, he can and will kick epic amounts of ass. And yet he continues to have little self-confidence, failing to realize how impressive he looks from the outside. In an unusual twist on this trope, however, he's actually at his most badass when the two sides of his personality are in balance, since he can literally draw destructive power from his lust.

Issei's first fight against Riser. Although he tries to be the Determinator, Riser continually beats him to the point that Rias surrenders the rating game to save his life. Issei then returns the favor in their next fight. After his training, he's delivering all the curb stomps to weaker devils.

Issei and Kiba vs Xenovia and Irina. The latter two win rather easily, largely due to faults the former two had, such as Kiba attempting to use a big, heavy sword which negated his speed advantage, and in Issei's case, Koneko warning Irina about his DressBreak ability ahead of time.

Any of Sirzechs' fights, including the one with Issei, will result in the former beating the crap out of his opponents. And he wasn't even taking it seriously!

Unless you're a high level devil in your peerage, facing Sona will result in this.

Diodora is defeated by Issei fairly easily, and is the first villain to go down without the help of the other members of the Occult Research Club.

In Volume 12, while still suffering from Samael's curse, Vali vaporizes Pluto into dust.

Ajuka can curb stomp an army while sitting down in his chair.

Sairaorg delivers this to any weak opponents. Including Hercules, where Rossweiss was having a hard time against him at Kyoto, though she was drunk back then.

Kuisha delivers one to Akeno by repelling her Holy Lightning. She ends up on the receiving end of a brutal one from Issei immediately afterwards.

Cute Bruiser: Koneko is adorable enough to be considered a school mascot, and strong enough to punch you through walls.

Everyone in Rias's group except Issei has this. Rias is the head of her household since her brother became the de facto ruler of hell, Kiba was a survivor of an illegal church experiment in which only he survived because of Rias, Koneko was saved from death after her sister killed her master, Akeno is a half-Fallen Angel due to Baraqiel being one and Shuri a human. Her mother was killed by her father's enemies. Asia has the ability to heal anything, at first the church thought it was a blessing until they found her she could also heal devils, after which they branded her a witch.

Even Issei's parents aren't immune. Issei's mother suffered two miscarriages before Issei was born. It puts a new perspective on all their hopes and dreams on Issei and their doting nature towards Asia.

Darkest Hour: Volume 11. To wit, Hades starts a war in Hell, a portion of Ophis' power was taken from her, thus rendering her unable to return to her dimension, Vali is poisoned thanks to Samael the Dragon Eater, Issei dies, and everyone else is having a Heroic B.S.O.D..

A Day in the Limelight: More like a volume in the limelight but everyone in the Occult Research Club has their stories centered on a certain volume. Issei and Asia for Volume 1, Rias for Volume 2, Kiba for Volume 3, Gasper for Volume 4, Koneko for Volume 5, Asia again for Volume 6, Akeno for Volume 7, Volume 9 for Kunou, volume 10 for Rias again. Ravel stars in Volume 14. Reversely, volume 11-12 take a break from focusing on the girls to show off Issei. Averted with volumes 8, 13, and 15 as these are short story compilations. The focus of Volume 16 stars Gasper and according to the author's notes, the emperor dragons Ddraig and Albion.

Dark Is Not Evil: Devils are mostly just people trying to evict the Fallen Angel invaders of their home, and the fallen often have sympathetic natures and personalities. That being said, there are plenty of evil ones (lookin' at you, Diodora Astaroth).

Date Peepers: In Volume 7, during Issei's date with Akeno, Rias and some Occult Research Club members follow them around, all in ludicrously ineffective disguies...except for Kiba, who apparently took a look at the others and decided not to bother.

Deal with the Devil: The ORC's job between crisis situation is to fulfill literal ones, but in a subversion most of them appear to be generic odd jobs that don't need any kind of demonic ability to complete. For example, one of Koneko's regular contractors is a costume designer who uses her to model loli cosplay outfits.

Deader Than Dead: Devils and Fallen Angels can vanish forever whenever they get hit by a powerful attack.

Raynare is atomized by Rias's Power of Destruction.

Azazel runs through Katerea with his light spear and causes her to disintegrate.

Sirzechs uses his Power of Destruction to turn Creuserey into dust.

Diodora gets run through by Shalba's light spear and is vaporized.

Shalba gets killed permanently by Issei's final attack in volume 11.

Yaegaki disappears forever when Rizevim kills him to get Issei's goat.

Subverted with Asia in episode 3. Issei does try to protect her, but he's nowhere near strong enough to fight Freed, and only manages to land one lucky punch. Issei even suspected he was outmatched, and were it not for the timely arrival of Rias, he probably would've died there.

Played straight in Volume 6, where both Issei and Xenovia swear that if Diodora ever comes near Asia again, they will kill him.

Defeat by Modesty: Issei's Dress Break invokes this, sure its mainly used on females but usually it's not modesty that defeats them, it's the heavy-handed blasting coming from Issei or one of his teammates as person in question covers their naughty bits.

Deus ex Machina: Twice in the series, with the Chichigami/Breast God helping Issei defeat Loki at the end of Volume 7, and then Issei's resurrection by the hands of Great Red and Ophis in Volume 12. The latter is linked to the Diabolus ex Machina described right below.

Diabolus ex Machina: Issei gets struck by it real hard in Volume 11: he successfully defeated Sairaorg and became the new strongest Young Devil, he got promoted to Middle-Class status, and his harem helped him overcome his emotional baggage. And then he dies from Samael's curse.

Odin pays a visit to Issei's house and was hanging out with Azazel. Ophis also visits Issei's house in volume 11.

After the end of volume 12, she becomes their mascot.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Issei's fight against Riser. He sacrifices his left arm in order to obtain some powers from his Sacred Gear. But more importantly, since it's no longer technically his arm, he is able to hold the cross and utilize holy water against the otherwise undefeatable Riser without the usual repercussion of a devil holding holy items and taking damage.

Dirty Mind-Reading: Issei's Bilingual fails on Sairaorg's bishop because she's willing to strip for Issei and her breasts just say which clothing she's taking off.

Distracted by the Sexy: In episode 2, Rias attempts a demonstration of Issei's powers, and tells him to raise his left hand and concentrate. Unfortunately, she's sitting right in front of him, and higher up, so he's able to see up her skirt, and can't concentrate properly. He even points it out in his thoughts.

The Dividual: Rias and Akeno show certain aspects of this. As from narrative point is clear, they are intended to be the indivisible combo. And even within the story, they are slowly becoming more and more equal as time goes. Not mention that on many official arts are always together.

Issei's Boosted Gear has the ability to double the power of the user every ten seconds at the cost of putting strain on the user. Oh the effects can also be stacked. It may remind some people of the Kaio-ken which boosts the users power, speed, defense, ki, etc. The only change produced by the basic Kaio-ken to be quantified in the series is that it doubles the user's power level. The Kaio-ken is also quite taxing on the user's body.

The Khaos Brigade's terrorist attacks are eerily similar to those used by the real-life Al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) terrorist organizations.

Downer Ending: This is how the past Boosted Gear users' lives ended according to a lot of people, foremost being Ddraig. Issei has a close brush with this trope in volume 11 but revives with some help from Ddraig, Great Red, and Ophis.

Dragon Ancestry: Issei Hyoudo will have multiple children by his haremettes. Each of them will be part dragon from their father's side while the other half would be an assortment of vampire, devil, fallen angel and Valkyrie depending on who was their mother.

Dragons Are Divine: Dragons are shown to be very powerful beings that could rival those of Heaven, Hell, and other Gods in mythology. In fact, the battle between Ddraig and Albion cause the death of God and Devil when the army of Heaven, Hell and Fallen Angels battled them. And in the future, Issei himself becomes a powerful dragon that could wipe out a platoon of low level Gods. He's also a major celebrity in the Underworld.

Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Hoo boy, BorN has a doozy. In seasons one and two, the translators apparently mistook Issei calling Rias "buchou" (fan-translated as "Prez" in most places, including this very page) as a purely cultural thing and had him use her name normally... except it's not, it's a symptom of Token Motivational Nemesis Raynare having scarred Issei way deeper than anyone thought, and Rias definitely noticed the pattern. Come Season 3, a plot-critical character arc's handling make its end result uncertain due to the Alternate Continuity.

Interestingly, the Funimation ADR (dub) scripts were written by Rias' American voice actress Jamie Marchi, although it's not clear if she did the translation or did the arrangement (or both; she has said that she enjoys giving characters "more personality"). A large part of the (modern) ADR process for anime involves making sure that the show does not turn into a ridiculous-looking (and/or distracting) Hong Kong Dub, which requires synchronizing the translated dialogue with the characters' Mouth Flaps. Direct 1:1 translations for anime are tricky at best, due to the fact that translated dialogue rarely has the same number of syllables as the original (and that's not even going into purely cultural concepts that just plain cannot be translated in simple terms); "buchou" and "Rias" are each two syllables, while "Prez" is one and "President" is three. Regardless, the plot hole is easily fixable, especially since BorN uses a Reset Button Ending and Hero retcons the previous season altogether with a Recap Episode. When it comes time for "Buchou is Buchou"/"That's the first time you've ever said my name," it could easily be transformed into "You're my master"/"You've never said my name like that," or something similar. More importantly, while the use of her name may raise eyebrows among people familiar with the light novels or the untranslated cartoon, it is a plot point, not a subplot in and of itself. The subplot is Rias being unable to tell Issei's true feelings, and the anime laid the groundwork for that (both in Japanese and the dub, although with different dialogue) before BorN.

Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted with Issei. At the start he was treated as a joke by even low-tier Fallen Angels, but once he started getting stronger, opponents took him more and more seriously.

Tropes E to N

Early-Bird Cameo: Sona Sitri makes a brief speaking appearance in the first episode of the anime. In the light novels she was not introduced until volume 3.

At the end of the first arc, despite going through a Heroic B.S.O.D. and being betrayed by Raynare, Issei finally gets Rias as his girlfriend and he becomes friends with Asia.

By the end of volume 4, the Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils held a successful peace conference and end up forming The Alliance, ushering in a new era of peace.

Towards the end of volume 10, Issei finally snaps out of his Heroic B.S.O.D. he suffered from Raynare's betrayal thanks to his friends, and he and Rias finally profess their love for each other following their Rating Game against Sairaorg.

In quite a few ways for the anime, as BorN is the last season with Tetsuya Yanagisawa as director, the last season to feature Takao Yoshioka as a scriptwriter, the last to feature Junji Goto's character designs, and the last with TNK as its animation studio.

The death of Rizevim Livan Lucifer signifies the dissolution of the Khaos Brigade and the end of the Old Satan Faction.

After Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima's graduation, Yuto Kiba and Asia Argento becoming the next president and vice-president seem to solidify the end of an era for the Rias-led Occult Research Club.

The aftermath of Trihexa's rampage results in this. In order to reseal Trihexa and ensure that it will be defeated for good, most of the leaders of the various factions sealed themselves with Trihexa. Also, the entire rampage in the human world was recorded by the media, and what's left of the various factions can only do so much to cover up what really happened. And to top things off, Rizevim and the Evil Dragons managed to make contact with another dimension and sent over information on teleportation techniques, and with nobody to keep Indra in check, interdimensional war is a huge possibility in 30 years.

Xenovia has no issues siding with the devils in Rias's group in order to take out the Fallen Angels who have stolen some holy swords. The latter are helping partly because they're fighting a common enemy, but also because of Kiba's obsession with destroying holy swords, due to his Dark and Troubled Past where he was forced to take part in experiments to be able to wield them, only to then watch the other kids get killed when they were no longer useful in the experiment. As a result, the others decide they want to help him, since the end result was still getting rid of the holy swords. Fortunately, Xenovia makes a Heel–Face Turn after learning that God Is Dead despite her ironic exile from the church, even undergoing a Karmic Transformation into a devil.

Played for Laughs during Issei's first fight with Irina. He attempts to use his DressBreak move on her, but Koneko warns the girl what said ability is used for. Consequently, Irina dodges his attempts to touch her. When he complains about Koneko helping their enemy, she simply states that he is an enemy to all women.

Issei's boost gear, Ddraig, tells him about the three-way war between heaven, hell, and the fallen angels during episode 8 in season 2. He mentions that for the most part, the dragons stayed out of the conflict, but two of them, himself and Albion, joined the fray. They raised such a ruckus that all three sides stopped fighting temporarily to stop the two dragons. In the end, the two dragons were chopped up, and their souls sealed in the boost gear that their respective humans have. And because of the nature of their being, they're always destined to fight each other should they meet.

Everyone Can See It: It is so painfully obvious Rias likes Issei that her father acknowledges him as his future son-in-law... Same thing applies for Akeno later on, and any savvy reader notices Asia's liking of Issei from the first chapters after she's introduced.

Evil Counterpart: Vali Lucifer and Albion are evil counterparts to Issei and Ddraig.

First Kiss: Rias steals Issei's first kiss and later on, Asia and Akeno's first kisses are also from Issei. Although it is later revealed that Issei's first kiss was with Irina when they were still children.

Foreign Fanservice: Slightly over a minute into the series the presence of overseas students is stated to be one of the great things about the school. When Rias is introduced, it's mentioned that she is rumoured to be Scandinavian and after the Bedmate Reveal in volume 1, Issei's mother specifically states her son's in bed with a foreign girl.

Foreshadowing: In the anime, at least. Blink and you'll miss it, but after getting Boosted Gear to work the first time, Issei deflects a bolt of Holy Lightning with it. Guess what plays a crucial role in beating Riser?

If Issei didn't go out on the date with Raynare, he wouldn't have been killed by Raynare after discovering her true form, Rias wouldn't have transformed him into a Devil, he wouldn't have befriended Asia, and Raynare's plot to steal her Sacred Gear would've never been discovered.

If Zeoticus didn't arrange for Rias to marry Riser, not only would Issei not have his Engagement Challenge, but Rias would've never continued to pursue her relationship with Issei, and Ravel wouldn't have transferred to Kuoh Academy and joined the Occult Research Club.

If Diodora hadn't stabbed himself and had Asia heal him, she wouldn't have been exiled from the Church as a heretic, she wouldn't have formed a friendship with either Issei, Xenovia or Irina, and Diodora wouldn't have been curb-stomped by Issei.

Azazel sent Baraqiel on a mission, but he was wounded and was discovered by Shuri Himejima. Then, after having their daughter, Akeno, Shuri is killed by her own relatives, resulting in Akeno disowning her father. Then, she goes on the run and is discovered by Rias, who joins the Occult Research Club. Later, she ends up starting a relationship with Issei, who helps her reconcile with her father.

If Azazel didn't negotiate a peace treaty between the Fallen Angels, Angels and Devils, the Khaos Brigade would've never been discovered, Vali wouldn't have gained a rival-turned-friendship in the form of Issei, the youkai wouldn't have formed an alliance with the devils, Yasaka wouldn't have been rescued by Issei and Sun Wukong wouldn't have helped Issei defeat Cao Cao.

Fountain of Youth: One short story has Rias and Asia turned into children, with their memories sealed and their behavior and intelligence scaled down appropriately. The Club manages to reverse the effects by the end, only for Issei (who the two had been trying to de-age in the first place when Rias's spell backfired) to suffer this when Gasper unintentionally pushes him into the magic circle. His mind isn't altered, but the Club decides that restoring him isn't a priority.

Friend or Idol Decision: During a break from their sparring, Azazel asks Kiba between Issei and Rias, who would he save. Kiba then flat out tells him that he'll save Rias because without her, everything is lost.

Friends Property Tax Control: Rias has Issei's house rebuilt into a six-storey, three-basement estate. Even if the neighbors were hypnotized into not noticing the overnight renovations, the ramifications of violating roughly all the zoning laws and the colossal jump in property value and rates are never mentioned.

Friend to All Children: When Issei gets involved with the Grabbin' Dragon TV series, he gains a fan club consisting of children.

In volume 2, Riser turns up and Rias proposes to hold a Rating Game. Then the Occult Research Club gets defeated by Riser's allies. Then Riser brutally attacks Issei. Then Rias is forced to stop the game by resigning before Issei gets injured any further. And this happens a few chapters before the Engagement Challenge between Issei and Riser.

In volume 6, Diodora shows up and sends letters to Asia. Then, the Khaos Brigade attacks the Underworld and Diodora kidnaps Asia. Then, Shalba kills Diodora and sends Asia to the Dimensional Gap, leading Issei to the only conclusion he knows.

Funbag Airbag: In Season 3, while the group travel to the Underworld on a train, Akeno falls on top of Issei due to the emergency stop.

Gag Dub: The dub adds ample slang and "guy talk" straight out of a Judd Apatow movie - (albeit with only maybe 25% of the swearing). When Kiba comes to fetch sex-crazed Issei, the girls in the class object on the basis that Issei will corrupt and ruin the popular, pleasant Kiba. Issei dismisses this with "Settle down, will you? I promise not to steal his pimp juice." One gets the feeling that since most US networks wouldn't air an ecchi series if their lives depended on it, the English dubbers figured "We're going to get an R rating anyway, might as well throw in some swearing!"

Gainaxing: Generally all the girls, with boob bounce sounds. Two exceptions are Asia and Konkeo, who aren't quite big enough for that, though once or twice they'll still have this effect if you look closely.

Genre Savvy: Nearly everyone is at least at some level of this. It's to the point where Azazel and the Maous outline the motivations of the Hero Faction in video game terms.

When Issei's mother walks into his room at the worst possible time in volume 1, she exclaims that he just had sex with Rias, whom she assumes to be a foreigner.

In the English dub of Hero, when Xenovia and Irina catch Issei and Asia kissing, Xenovia calls it a PG-13 moment, which is a film rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). When asking them how long if they can bump it into an R rating, she also mentions the M for Mature rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Given Hero aired on a Tuesday night time slot in Japan and rated TV-MA in North America, Xenovia proceeds to help take that moment Up to Eleven by joining Asia in stripping naked and seducing Issei like usual.

Glory Days: The Old Satan Faction is rooted in the recreation of the pre-Great War Four Great Satans.

God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Inverted. Most Devils are represented in a positive light, as are the Angels and most Fallen Angels, which is closer to the original depictions of devils in some sources (where they are primarily a trickster figure who tempts humans to do their bidding rather than outright omnicidal, maliciously evil. The devil jobs that Issei and co. do reflect this).

God Before Dogma: Even though the main characters are Devils, the theme is still very prominent throughout the series. As Michael himself explains, if an action would be considered immoral if performed against you, it's also immoral when performed against a Devil.

God Is Dead: Michael's the one running the place in Heaven and not God, that's why Asia can heal devils, and Kiba can dual wield a holy sword and a demon sword. The reason he died is because he pulled off a Dying Moment of Awesome by sealing a being on par with Great Red and Ophis.

God Karting with Beelzebub: While the devils, angels, and fallen angels are all technically enemies, most of them have no qualms interacting on friendly terms. The Archangel Michael is shown to be exceptionally respectful to members of the other classes, even giving Issei the special Holy Sword, Ascalon, to help him beat the White Dragon Emperor. This gets further played afterthe three races unite under a peace treaty. They might as well not even be of different classes post that happening.

Gone Horribly Right: Sirzechs originally championed the Grabbin' Dragon series to bring a source of hope and inspiration to the children of the Underworld. The fact that his son prefers the Grabbin' Dragon to Satan Red, i.e. Issei over his own father, depresses him greatly.

Good Is Not Soft: We are shown that the Occult Research Club and the Four Great Satans are not against the use of deadly force directly or indirectly on the various mooks and/or villains they encounter.

Grand Finale: BorN and the OVA episode, "The Unresurrected Phoenix", serve as the grand finale for TNK's anime adaptation.

Green-Eyed Monster: Issei when he's first seen by his two guy friends with Yuuma, and later with Rias. The girls also have this look when Yuto arrives to pick him up for Rias.

Guilty Pleasure: In-universe example, Issei has gone...somewhat far with some of the girls, to the point it's just short of sex.

Handshake Substitute: Issei and Kiba do the fist bump variation just before they go to their separate positions in their first Rating Game.

Happy Ending Override: At the end of the first story arc, Asia is transformed into a devil, Raynare is killed, Issei nullifies Riser's engagement to Rias and peace has been restored. By the beginning of the second arc, however, it turns out Kokabiel is searching for Excalibur and is planning to start another great war between devils, angels and fallen angels.

Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted. Issei is mentioned constantly to be talentless and no good at anything at all. He goes through Training from Hell constantly to improve himself and in the end it worked. He turned out to be the strongest out of the Occult Club which consisted of some of the most talented individuals and some of them even had special lineages such as the the sister of the current Satan and the daughter of a leader of the Fallen Angel faction. He even eventually matched up to Vali who had the lineage of the original Satan to back himself up. The author himself mentioned that this is a series where hard work pays off and it shows. Azazel even thinks of Issei as a sponge who can absorb anything. Same thing with Sairaorg who also subverts this trope because any devil who fights off against him and loses, they don't have what it takes to bounce back since their powers don't work on someone who's just using his body as a weapon.

Harem Genre: The girls of the Occult Research Club eventually all become part of Issei's harem, but they aren't initially.

Volume 1 starts with just Rias and Asia being the two opposing love interests.

Harem Seeker: Somewhat averted, while still being played straight - Issei's dream has always been to have his own harem, and he aims to be the "Harem King" upon getting his own peerage. However, he never intends to make the girls of the Occult Research Club his harem, though it inevitably happens.

Harmful Healing: Issei's most recent power up, Diabolos Dragon causes him to become almost allergic to breasts; something that normally heals him. It's so bad, that he's incapable of saying the word, seeing them in life, and just holding an erotic magazine causes him seizures.

Harmless Electrocution: Issei. Whenever he gets zapped by Rassei, Asia's pet, he gets the comically electrocuted treatment, he's left with no lasting damage and is usually fine in the next scene.

Hearing Voices: Special Sacred Gears usually have something sealed within them. Issei's has a red Welsh Dragon named Ddraig.

Healing Factor: This is the reason monsters such as Jabberwocky and Trihexa are so dangerous and difficult to deal with. They regenerate so quickly that, unless they're destroyed completely in a single blow, they just get up and attack again like nothing happened. Trihexa takes it even further. When Issei and Sirzechs are fighting an exposed core, even the power of destruction that had Hades going Bring Me My Brown Pants, fails to destroy it, as it grew back From a Single Cell in mere seconds, and Issei's new ability, an inextinguishable flame that burns until the living being struck with it has been completely obliterated is nothing more than a nuisance, as the core regenerates faster than the flame can burn it.

A Hell of a Time: With most Devils being a bunch of good folk, it really isn't a big surprise.

Issei falls into a brief one after Asia's death at the hands of Shalba Beelzebub (or so he thought).

Rossweisse goes through a brief one when Odin abandons her shortly after defeating Loki.

Played for Laughs with Ddraig whenever someone calls Issei Boob Dragon. It gets to the point that it actually makes him clinically depressed and he requires medication and psychological counseling. It's taken Up to Eleven when he is crying hysterically for a counselor when Ophis curiously ask if he quit being the Red Dragon Emperor and became Boob Dragon instead.

Also Played for Laughs with Albion seeing as his main rival is now known as the Breast Dragon Emperor, which hurts his pride. Also gets called the Butt Dragon Emperor thanks to Vali revealing his fetish.

Issei's second untimely demise does quite a number on the Occult Research Club by the time volume 12 rolls around.

Elmenhilde falls into a major one when her homeland is destroyed by Rizevim.

Heroic Sacrifice: A non-fatal example, but most of the leaders of the various factions seal themselves to contain Trihexa.

Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: After creating The Alliance between the angels, fallen angels, and demons, the Khaos Brigade started on terrorizing them because the three factions hate peace and/or are threatened by said peace by the three factions.

Played for Laughs when Sirzechs asked his son which one he prefers: Satan Red or Breast Dragon. His son prefers the Breast Dragon. The hoist part? He was the one who pushed for that series in the first place.

As part of the Old Satan Faction's plan to cause chaos to the world, Katerea Leviathan organizes an assault on Kuoh Academy to break up the peace treaty between the three factions. It backfires when she gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice courtesy of Azazel, the leader of one of the three factions, kills her.

An inverted version of this trope occurs during Akeno and Kuisha's duel in the Rating Game Tournament between Sairaorg and Rias. Akeno tries to attack Kuisha with her lightning bolts during their match. Unfortunately for Akeno, Kuisha defeats her by absorbing her attacks to electrocute her.

Siegfried gets killed by Kiba after Gram answered to Kiba instead of him.

Cao Cao was so Crazy-Prepared that he neglected the fact that Samael's poison also works on snakes because of his Medusa eye. Yeah, that same Samael blood that Issei got coated with in his fight against Shalba.

The Old Satan Faction's plot to exact revenge on the Four Great Satans ends up being their own undoing thanks to the alliance between the three factions.

Home Base: The Occult Research Club's main headquarters is the old schoolhouse at Kuoh Academy. Meanwhile, the female members of the club and Issei live in his residence, which also serves as the main base for the Three Factions after the end of volume 5.

Hood Orniment Hottie: The Occult Research Club does this while washing a car in the Season Four ending theme.

Horny Devils: The main reason Issei is cool with becoming a demon is that Rias tells him he can use it to get laid.

How the Mighty Have Fallen: In volume 20, the Khaos Brigade gone from one of the most powerful fighting force to a smaller-sized army after losing the Old Satan Faction and the Hero Faction turned on them.

How We Got Here: The series begins with Issei's death at the hands of Raynare and the events leading to this moment.

Humongous Mecha: Azazel makes one from Sirzechs' request. He builds it underneath the swimming pool of the school named Maouga.

I Can Explain: Issei has to explain to his parents first why there is a naked red-headed girl sleeping in his bed, and later why another girl is coming to live in their home. As of the Season 1 finale, make that two girls.

Immortal Procreation Clause: Devils live for 10,000 years, but don't reproduce very quickly. This appears to be a similar issue for Angels and Fallen Angels, with the former group barely able to engage in intimacy at all without turning into the latter group. The low fertility rate became particularly problematic after the massive casualties from the Great War, which included the Biblical God and consequently, any increase in Pure Angel numbers. Devils and Angels have taken to reincarnating other races into their own with Evil Pieces and Brave Saints, respectively.

The fate of Issei Hyoudou at the hands of Raynare (a Fallen Angel, no less) in Volume 1 before Rias revives him. Raynare's associate Dohnaseek runs him through with his spear before Rias rescues him and heals him.

Issei finally gets to dish out several simultaneously in the first Rating Game using "Gift" with Yuto's ability to summon a Field of Blades under a group of Riser's pieces.

In volume 6, Shalba Beelzebub uses a light spear to run him through for failing to complete his mission.

Instant Armor: Issei's Sacred Gear starts out as an Instant Gauntlet, but as it grows more powerful, it gradually expands to cover most of his arm. Then, after he sacrifices his arm to Ddraig for a short-term power boost, his left arm becomes the gauntlet, and he has to use magic to keep it normal. Later on, he becomes able to summon a fully-covering suit of magical armor to go with it. And Vali - the White Dragon Emperor - can use his version of this power pretty much from the start, and does so with abandon.

Instant Awesome: Just Add Dragons!: There are the three main factions: Devils, Angels, Fallen Angels, and then there are the dragons who decided not to align with any of the three and are strong enough to enforce that fact.

Interservice Rivalry: After becoming The Alliance, the Judeo-Christian faction play a version of this. The Devils being analogous to the Army, the Angels as the Navy, and the Fallen Angels as the Air Force. Then there's the Human side, the Sacred Gear possessors and the hybrids, as the Marines.

It's All My Fault: Azazel blames himself for unintentionally causing Akeno and Baraqiel to be estranged. It's later revealed that Azazel was directly responsible for it by dispatching Baraqiel on a mission and leaving Shuri to be killed by Akeno's relatives.

Kalawarner, Dohnaseek, and Mittelt mocking Issei's death in front of Rias come back to haunt them a few seconds later when she wipes them all out.

At the end of Volume 1, Raynare is killed by Rias. Raynare lured Issei to his death by pretending to be a nice girl, and when she attempts to trick Issei after being defeated by him, Issei resists and asks Rias to kill her. Notably, Raynare's the first villain to die in the series.

Katerea Leviathan sought to destroy the Peace Conference between the Three Factions. Moments later, she is killed by Azazel, the leader of one of the very members of the Three Factions.

Creuserey Asmodeus is disintegrated by Sirzechs Lucifer, whom he considered an imposter Satan. Meanwhile, Diodora's killed after being curb-stomped by Issei, the same devil who rescued Asia back in volume 1.

At the end of volume 16, Marius Tepes is killed by Gasper, the half-blood vampire he ridiculed.

Rizevim spent his life underestimating dragons and it comes back to haunt him when Issei combines the power of two legendary dragons to curb-stomp him, before Fafnir snaps him up and eats him alive.

Karmic Jackpot: Thanks to Azazel signing a peace treaty between the Three Factions, the Fallen Angels become allies with the Devils.

Karmic Transformation: Xenovia, who kills off devils as an exorcist, ironically has Rias resurrect her as a devil after the Church exiles her for understandably learning that God Is Dead.

Rias tells Issei in volume 1 that fallen angels and devils can selectively erase themselves from human memories, such as Yuuma with Issei's two guy friends, and later Rias with Issei's parents after his mom catches them in his room naked.

At the conclusion of their battle with Issei's clone in BorN, Rias and Issei's memories of that battle and her corruption are erased when they return to the real world.

Asia being killed by Raynare, and thereafter resurrected as a devil is a major spoiler for the first arc of the series, and only occurs at the end of Volume 1 (or Episode 5 in the anime). It is almost impossible to talk about the series without spoiling this fact somewhat, although it is possible to downplay it so the scene still comes as a surprise.

The fact that God Is Dead is a major twist in the second season/third volume, but provides much of the lore of the series, and is often spoiled.

Light Is Not Good: Fallen angels can still use the power of light, and they're in hell fighting with the devils.

Loads and Loads of Characters: You have the 14 members of the Occult Research Club, characters aligned with the devils (the Four Great Satans, the Gremory and Bael families, Diodora, Riser), characters that are aligned with Kuoh Academy (the Student Council, Matsuda and Motohama) characters that are aligned with the Fallen Angels (Kokabiel, Raynare, Baraqiel), characters that are aligned with the Angels (Michael) and characters that are aligned with the Khaos Brigade (Vali's team, the Old Satan Faction's leaders, and the Hero Faction). That's already 61 and that's before getting to mythologies, exorcists, dragons, vampires and God, which brings it to a total of over 100 characters.

Long-Lived: Devils have an average lifespan of 10,000 years, and most other supernatural beings appear to live just as long.

Loophole Abuse: In the rating game against Riser, Rias's team does fairly well against his despite having fewer pieces/characters. Then when Issei reaches Riser, he refuses to stay down despite receiving a Curb-Stomp Battle from the latter and barely having the energy to stand. Riser then mentions that he wants to kill Issei, and that if he should happen to die during a rating game, it would be seen as an accident, rather than murder. Rias is also aware of this, and surrenders herself in order to save Issei.

Love Makes You Evil: Or in this case, "Love Makes You Turn Into a Fallen Angel." Azazel explains that the first fallen angels became so was because they made out with a human being. Irina almost gets turned into a fallen angel twice. Then volume 19 reveals that they were many other offscreen moments where Irina was in danger of falling.

Lover Tug-of-War: Early in Season 2, Rias and Asia subject Issei to this wearing nothing but panties.

A mild example in the opening credits of Akeno vs. Asia with Issei as the prize.

Magikarp Power: Pawns can promote into any piece except a King as long as they are in the enemy territory.

Marshmallow Hell: It's through hell that Issei finds his heaven. While never exactly innocent, the reasons for it run the gamut from fluffy (it's just how Rias hugs him; she's tall, affectionate, and has romantic feelings that lead her to indulge him a bit) to sultry (Akeno has designs to be The Mistress and gets a kick out of anything scandalous).

Up to Eleven in the Season 2 OVA where a pervy monster strip the girls and, manipulating their bras, make them surround Issei to stop his attack. He end in a sandwich with all his harem; so much that the monster, now jealous, decides to absorb the girls instead.

Issei's last name Hyoudou means "regular soldier" in Japanese, given his initial status as a pawn.

Rias's last name is one of the 72 Pillars of the Ars Goetia, and is said to show herself as an attractive woman. Her Pawn is a Fairy Chess Piece that can also move sideways. It was proposed as a way to "shake up" the rules of chess, as Issei does for the Rating Game. This part is later double subverted, as Ishibumi revealed that being the Pokémon nerd that he is, named her after Garchompnote Whose Japanese name is Gaburias., who just so happens to be a Dragon type (which is weak against Fairy types).

Asia's surname is Italian for "silver", as in silver crosses. She wears one in her introductory arc before being revived as a devil.

Akeno Himejima's last name means "Island Princess" and is also the name of a place in Japan.

Kiba's name is the Japanese word for "Horse Rider", given that knights in chess are represented by horses.

Koneko is a good name for a Cat Girl as it is Japanese for "kitten" (more literally "child cat"), while her surname Toujou means "castle", befitting her position as Rook. Her real name, Shirone, means "White Sound", in reference to her hair and tail color.

Xenovia's last name, Quarta, means "fourth" in Italian, Catalan, Latin, and Portuguese. Xenovia becomes the fourth girl to join the ORC after Asia.

Irina Shido's first name is a variant of Irene, being a Cyrillic-transliterated Christian Orthodox feminine given name of Greek origin that is used in Eastern Europe. Irina is a devout Christian.

Karnstein is the name of the vampire countess featured in the novella of the same name, the prototype for Lesbian Vampire (which explains why the Carmilla faction are very matriarchal. It is speculated that Elmenhilde's progenitor is no other than the countess Mircalla Karnstein, aka Elizabeth Bathory herself, similar to Vlad Tepes to Tepes faction). In a meta-sense, the Carmilla novella actually predated Dracula by about twenty six years, reflecting her inferiority view towards the Tepes faction vampires.

Vasco is a Portuguese name derived from the medieval Iberian name Velasco. Strada is the Italian word for "street".

Ewald is a Germanic name which is made up of the words ewa ("law or custom") and wald ("rule"). Cristialdi is an Italian name possibly based off of the Sicilian word cristaudu, which means "Crystal".

Teodoro Legrenzi's first name is the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of the male name Theodore.

Mêlée à Trois: There are three different powers currently in this setting: God and his angels, the fallen angels, and the devils.

Mellow Fellow: The Archangel Michael. Even when he's waging in battle, he's still pretty calm.

Meido: Grayfia, head maid to Rias's Brother's household. Also she's his wife.

Mohs Scale of Violence Hardness: It ranks a violent 8. For example, plenty of people get bloody wounds, limbs get dismembered, Riser's face gets burned to a crisp in Volume 2, some characters such as Raynare, Katerea, Shalba and Creuserey are disintegrated into dust, and Rizevim gets Eaten Alive by Fafnir. The anime adaptation got an R15+ rating in Japan for it, in addition to its fanservice.

Pretty much how this series works. After discussing serious issues in volume 7, Azazel asks where Odin wants to go. He immediately declares that he wants to go to a breast club much to the consternation of the group.

A darker variation with episode 1 of BorN. It starts off with Issei having an erotic dream of the girls topless and telling him to have at them, and he's all-too-eager to start. Then Raynare appears to cruelly mock him and Issei ends up snapping awake on the verge of tears.

Volume 12 starts out depressing after what happened in the previous volume. And then, it's now at Issei's perspective of the story where the first few things that he says is that he can't even make out with Rias anymore with his current spirit form.

Rias is willing to be naked in front of her servants, especially towards Issei. While Issei was freaking out and his mother seemed stunned, her response when she walked in on them naked in bed was a polite "good morning" without even trying to cover herself up.

About Akeno, Female Fallen Angels are renowned for having very seductive bodies and her naturally sexy disposition, plus having the largest breast size in the series so far, only enhances this fact. Azazel himself states that Akeno is seductive even for a Fallen Angel.

The other major girls in the Issei harem (as Asia and Xenovia) are hovering between to being a sort of Innocent Fanservice Girl who doesn't realize there's a problem with getting naked in a particular situation and a Shameless Fanservice Girl who fully comprehends what she's doing but does it anyway to achieve her goals.

Mutual Kill: Shalba successfully completes his revenge on Issei by fatally wounding him. However, in Issei's dying moments, he ends up killing Shalba.

My Eyes Are Up Here: One side story involves Azazel's newest contraption stripping Issei of his perversion. Rias first realizes that something's wrong when Issei talks to her without looking at her breasts.

Naked Apron: Issei sees Asia wearing one during season 2. When he protests that his parents would be mad if they saw her like that, his mom pops out from the kitchen, stating she was the one that came up with the idea. Rias then decides to do the same as well.

The first special of Season 3 has Rias and Akeno compete for Issei's affections. Rias begins by acting and dressing like a sexy school teacher while Akeno plays the role of housewife wearing nothing but an apron.

Near Villain Victory: In EX, Loki and the Underworld Lifeforms wreak utter havoc with the timeline to cause a Time Crash. They succeed in, among other things, developing the Alternate Continuity that the last four episodes of BorN take place in. Loki would have won if it wasn't for Issei's children time-traveling to the past and capturing Loki so they can undo a curse he has inflicted on Asia.

New Season New Title: While Season 1 is titled High School D×D, subsequent seasons have additions to the titles: High School D×D NEW (Season 2), High School D×D BorN (Season 3) and High School D×D HERO (Season 4).

Azazel and Baraqiel are directly responsible for Akeno's transformation into a devil. Azazel dispatches Baraqiel, who marries Shuri Himejima and having their daughter Akeno in the process. Unfortunately, it led to the Himejimas killing Shuri because they resent Fallen Angels. When she saw Baraqiel, Akeno was not amused and they became estranged.

Cleria's murder at the hands of the old devils when she found out about the illegal "King" piece allowed the Rating Game corruption to continue for years.

Issei destroying one of Cao Cao's eyes didn't exactly end well when he gets a rematch with replacing his now-missing eye with Medusa's eye.

While Fafnir had perfectly understandable reasons to kill Rizevim, actually carrying them out brought the world into an unprecedented level of peril.

Diodora's plan involves having Raynare kill Asia Argento, but it ends up backfiring on him when Issei rescues her and proves to be a more formidable opponent for stopping his later plans. And him using Ophis's snake against Seekvaira Agares caused Azazel and Sirzechs to throw a monkey wrench in the Khaos Brigade's plans.

Sure, Kokabiel telling the Occult Research Club that God Is Dead was a shocker, but it does end up contributing to Xenovia and Irina joining the club in the long run. It's also the catalyst for Azazel to set up a peace treaty between the Three Factions, kill Katerea during the Khaos Brigade's assault on Kuoh Academy, and help form an alliance in the volume 4 finale.

Despite needing Yasaka for the ritual to summon Great Red, Cao Cao invites Issei, his friends and Kunou to Nijo Castle just so they can witness the Hero Faction's efforts. This results in Issei and Sun Wukong coming together to foil Cao Cao's plan.

Cao Cao his old eye with Medusa's eye comes back to haunt Cao Cao as it gives Issei a major weakness to exploit.

Rizevim's destruction of the Carmilla and Tepes territories causes the vampires to put aside their racism for better or worse and contributes to Elmenhilde joining Issei's team. Also, his kidnapping of Issei's parents and makes Issei transform into a Dragon in front of them, hoping to emotionally break Issei by having his parents reject him. Instead, they support him until Diehauser is demoralized and Issei gets a new power-up. Issei even thanks him for getting the issue of revealing his identity over with.

Nipple and Dimed: In the series, nipples are frequently shown, but not the genitals.

No Pronunciation Guide: It took until Season 3 for the "D×D" portion of the title to be confirmed to be pronounced "Dee-Dee".

Nothing Is the Same Anymore: In Volume 21, most of the faction leaders and their subordinates seal themselves with Trihexa to fight against it.

The three classes of supernatural beings. This is especially made prominent when the angel, fallen angel, and devil leaders sit down to have a peace meeting. Archangel Michael makes it clear that he does not see the other races as inherently evil, nor does he believe all of his own race to be inherently pure, admitting that excommunicating Asia and Xenovia from the church for their fairly innocent actions was brash and wrong, even asking that they forgive him.

Also, this is the exact reason why Issei and Vali have stopped fighting because of the Ddraig-Albion feud and became allies. They both have high moral senses, and greatly care for their respective teammates. Though, according to Vali, that isn't going to stop the two of them from inevitably clashing against one another.

Issei's mother walks into his room as he desperately tries to get Rias to cover up. Understandably, she is shocked out of her mind.

Whenever Rias catches Issei and one of the girls in compromising positions, she gets rather annoyed.

Tropes O to Z

Oblivious to Love: Issei wants a harem, but doesn't notice the one he has. Well, if it wasn't for Raynare who fucked him up in romance...

Official Couple: Issei is now officially engaged with Rias after dating her for several volumes. He's also engaged to Akeno (possibly; it's debatable, and Issei himself doesn't seem to know for sure), Xenovia, Irina, and Asia, in that order, but that kind of ruins the "couple" part, since they're all well aware the he's with all of them. He and Rias retain the title simply because they've been together the longest.)

Loki after feeling the power of the blessings of the Breast God, which also unlocks the full abilities of the Mjölnir replica.

Issei is mortified to discover Kunou attacking him when he first visits Kyoto.

When battling with Rossweisse outside of the girls' locker room in Kyoto, Rossweisse gets utterly shocked when Issei unwittingly brings up her lack of boyfriend, which is her Berserk Button. Then, she gets a Delayed "Oh, Crap!" after being subjected to his Dress Break.

Cao Cao gets mortified after seeing Rias get summoned instead of Great Red. Siegfried freaks out when realizing that Rias' breasts are the breasts of miracles if combined with Issei's powers. Heracles has a moment of terror as soon as he finds out that Sairaorg didn't even have a scratch when he used his Sacred Gear at full power.

A comedic example in Volume 10 when Odin encounters Rossweisse, who is royally pissed off at him for abandoning her after the fight with Loki, and only further enraged upon seeing that he'd replaced her with another Valkyrie.

One-Hit Kill: The Bael Clan's Power of Destruction technique can vaporize anyone and anything in its path. Thanks to Venelana Bael marrying Zeoticus Gremory, the technique gets passed down to the Gremory Clan.

Our Angels Are Different/Our Demons Are Different: Demons and fallen angels are two separate classes of beings: demons are the original inhabitants of hell, whereas fallen angels are interlopers who settled there after getting kicked out of heaven. The two groups have been at war ever since.

Our Dragons Are Different: Unusual for a media franchise, both Western and Eastern dragons appear in the series. The majority of the dragons, including Issei's Welsh Dragon, are Western ones.

Our Vampires Are Different: Pure-blooded vampires have every common trait: They need to be invited before entering buildings, no reflection or shadow, sustain themselves entirely on blood, and are averse to running water, garlic, daylight, and church symbols. Their powers include transformation, hypnotism, and turning their victims into vampires (who face discrimination for not being naturally born). Dhampirs like Gasper keep most of the powers while migitating most of the weaknesses.

Pals with Jesus: Well, maybe not Jesus specifically, but Issei along with the other main devils are on pretty good terms with most of the holy faction, with Michael even creating a Pocket Dimension that Issei and another angel, Irina, can get their freak on in without Irina losing her angel status. Sadly, due to Executive Meddling, Issei is going to have to wait a while to finally make good on that opportunity.

Panty Shot: The ratio of panty shots to pages in the manga is virtually 1:1; the anime doesn't try to do much less.

Harm one of Issei's future children, and he will make every effort to hunt you down, as Loki discovered the hard way.

Baraqiel, despite his initially tense relationship with Akeno, might just kill you if you threaten his daughter. Just ask Loki.

Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death: When the evening sky turns dark purple in volume 1 due to Raynare revealing herself as a Fallen Angel, it's obvious something really bad is about to happen to Issei Hyoudou.

The first season has Rias smiling as she looks out at Issei and his friends from the clubhouse's window.

In the finale of NEW, Rias, Asia and Akeno are clinging on to Rias while the other Occult Research Club members look on.

At the end of BorN, Rias smiles from the clubhouse's window once again, this time with Issei accompanied by the Occult Research Club members.

Peace Conference: Happens in the fourth volume. It was successful; however, there is a certain faction that doesn't want in, and that's the Khaos Brigade.

Peeping Tom: The first scene in the novels involves Issei and his friends Matsuda and Motohama peeking at the girls' locker room.

Perpetual Molt: In the anime, fallen angels tend to release a shower of black feathers when they whip their wings out.

Physical God: Gods in this series are extremely strong. Loki, for example, could hold off the two strongest members of the Fallen Angel group plus the entire Occult Club plus Saji in his dragon from with ease. Also Son Wukong has been shown to utterly crush the Hero Faction which are each individually at a High Ultimate-Tier Devil level. The two strongest beings, Ophis and Great Red, are represented by Infinite and Dreams which say volumes of how strong they are.

Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Koneko's the physically strongest member of Rias' peerage, and she's a tiny little girl.

Playing Card Motifs: The angelic bureaucracy has this going on as a counterpart to the Devils' Evil Pieces, as evidenced by Irina being assigned as the Ace of Spades, with the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel designated to the suits of Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds, respectively.

Please, I Will Do Anything!: When his faction is destroyed and he is at Gasper's mercy, Marius promises to do anything Gasper says; however, he gets eaten alive.

Polyamory: Could be called "Polyamory The Anime", at least during the Slice of Life segments. All of the girls love Issei, are aware of each others' feelings, and not only does this not bother them, but in many cases they'll support each other in their attempts to get closer to him.

Powered Armor: Yes, it actually does exist in the series; Issei and Vali's Balance Breakers are basically it.

Power Is Sexy: According to Ddraig, anybody who possesses the power of dragons instantly becomes a Chick Magnet because of this trope. He even describes to Issei that one of his past users slept with a lot of women.

Vali invokes this to Issei that the latter is ranked somewhere in the 4 digits and that Sirzechs won't enter the top 10.

According to Ishibumi, this is who Vali meant when he referred to the top 10. Disregarding Great Red, we have (in no particular order): Ophis (before her Nerf), Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Śakra, Thor, Typhon (or Fenrir and this is before its Nerf), Hades, Aten, and Lugh.

The devils also have a strength tier with ultimate being the highest level and low-level devils being the lowest. In a subversion, however, the entire Occult Club with the exception of Rias are all low-level devils and they are all considered with the exception of Asia and Gasper until his Curb-Stomp Battle with Georg to be high-level devils if not stronger. Ironically Rias herself ends up as one of the weaker members with most of the rest of the Occult Club surpassing her.

Issei is powered by a combination of lust and genuine love/care for his friends. However, in a slightly surprising twist, him calling on the power of love is generally a horrific, bloody, and all around terrifying experience. Asia's apparent murder by Shalba triggered Juggernaut Drive, which nearly caused him to kill all his friends. Ravel's kidnapping meant he no longer cared what happened to Mooks in his way. His parents being taken nearly drove him insane with rage. In short, the Power of Love is invoked when the object of love is threatened, and used to ensure whatever threat existed ceases to do so immediately.

A hilarious combination of the trope both being played straight and combined with The Power of Hate comes in Volume 6, where Issei and Koneko make use of the intense rivalry between Rias and Akeno. Both girls are struggling with a trio of strong opponents, and Issei tells Akeno he'll take her out on a date if she wins. Akeno immediately gains a Heroic Second Wind, followed by a furious and jealous Rias gaining an even greater second wind, topped in short order by another one from Akeno, until both women are putting out peak power. Their main opponent angrily berates them for arguing over a man during their battle, and the two women angrily blast her away, demanding she stay out of it.

Pretty Freeloaders: Asia is the first one who stays at Issei's home, then later on it's Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Xenovia, Irina, and Rossweisse who stay with him while Kiba and Gasper rent a house near them. Kuroka and Le Fay also get in on the action in the most recent novel.

Property of Love: As his master, Rias calls Issei her possession and says that he belongs to her only.

Pun: Upon seeing Serafall Leviathan, one of the Four Satans, Issei dubs her a "Maou Shoujo". note Demon King Girl, as opposed to Mahou Shoujo, Magical Girl.

Issei, Matsuda and Motohama peek at unsuspecting girls changing in their locker rooms. But when the three get caught, they're attacked by the girls.

The series shows that despite the things that Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels can do, it doesn't mean there are no side-effects. Issei goes wild when he transforms into his Juggernaut Drive form for the first time.

Issei, a lonely and desperate teenage boy, is approached by a seemingly cute and friendly girl that wants to go out with him, despite knowing his reputation as a perverted high school student; he will jump at the occasion. Furthermore, when said girl turns out to be a dangerous Fallen Angel and double-crosses him, it seriously causes a Heroic B.S.O.D. on his part.

Asia and Xenovia getting exiled from the Catholic Church as heretics. When Asia heals the devil Diodora Astaroth, her followers predictably excommunicate her. Xenovia later learns that God Is Dead and the Church isn't pleased about it.

Watching your mother die and blaming your father for not being able to save her doesn't magically fade away, as Akeno has emotional issues with Baraqiel over how he failed to save Shuri when she was young.

Shalba sends Asia to the Dimensional Gap and taunts about her imminent death to the Occult Research Club. Issei's response as a brother fearing for a sister figure's life would is to transform into Juggernaut Drive, curb-stomp Shalba and seemingly vaporize him.

All three leaders of the Old Satan Faction are killed by the Four Great Satans, leaving a power vacuum in the Khaos Brigade. The Hero Faction jumps ship to side with Hades and Rizevim, the last descendant of the original Satans, leaves with the remnants of the faction to form Qlippoth.

In one of the light novels, Rias' mother implies that this is the default state for all male near-immortals, directly invoking Power Is Sexy (although, interestingly, she states that Sirzechs does not do this specifically because of his position). The Immortal Procreation Clause is presumably also an influence. Akeno makes matter-of-fact references to "numbered" wives, stating that Rias will be "legal wife" and Asia will be "second," and she herself will be "third position," as if it's the most natural thing in the world, although Issei has no idea what she's talking about (and she claims that it does have a "feeling" of unfaithfulness). Issei having 10 kids in the future may seem like a lot to someone raised in a culture shaped by stable population growth, but considering that the devils periodically have to bolster their ranks with reincarnated humans, it really isn't.

Recap Episode: Since the anime-original episodes of BorN were made non-canon in 2015, Hero begins with a more faithful adaptation of the volume 6 finale.

Red Baron: A lot. Generally all the high-level fighters have some sort of terrifying nickname. Funnily enough, Issei is called the Breast Dragon Emperor which brings Ddraig no small amount of agony.

Issei is perverted and easily-angered, while Vali is seen as calm and collected.

Rias and Akeno also follow this trope. Rias is a fire-willed redhead who'll go on a fit if anyone of her peers are hurt (especially if it's Issei), while Akeno - when in non-sadomasochist tease mode - is a bonafide Yamato Nadeshiko.

Issei views Asia as his sister and his friend. As such, threatening or even attempting to kill Asia will set him off big time.

When Riser encounters the Occult Research Club once again before Rias's Rating Game with Sairaorg, he tells Issei that if he makes his sister Ravel cry, he will fry him.

Reset Button: In EX, Gasper tells Azazel that Ajuka is monitoring the various timelines in an attempt to figure out how to "converge" them and undo all of Loki's interference, which includes the BorN timeline, but EXends before he succeeds.

Reset Button Ending: At the end of BorN, Rias and Issei's memories of the battle with the latter's clone are erased after they return to our world, and everyone goes back to their daily lives.

Retcon: The first episode of Hero retcons the last four episodes of BorN out of existence, given the latter series strayed further from the source material.

Ret Gone: According to EX, Loki creating the different timelines causes some of the events like the Sitri-Gremory Rating Game to never happen in BorN.

R-Rated Opening: The prologue opens In Medias Res with Rias transforming Issei into a devil in his dying moments. Since the anime is an R15+ series, Issei lays in a pool of his own blood after Raynare kills him.

Rule 34: Hoo boy... While there's the Can't Have Sex, Ever clause the author has to follow, fans are happy to give Issei some (well-deserved) coitus. All in all, this series is very much "Rule 34-friendly".

Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: Ishibumi himself seems to support D×D erotica, even jokingly stating that he's gotten enough red-lights material from his fans to write boatloads of hentai doujins, or even make actual sex scenes with Issei and his haremettes if it wasn't for the Executive Meddling.

Rule 63: An In-Universe example, thanks to Azazel's gender-swapping gun in one of the short stories.

Running Gag: When Issei is sleeping in his bed, he often finds his harem either naked or wearing skimpy clothes.

School Sport Uniform: Used by the Occult Research club female members (for the joy of Issei) in the dodgeball match against the Student Council.

Sick Episode: One of the short stories in volume 13 has Issei becoming sick after catching a flu for devils and dragons.

Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Despite having some cynical traits such as the Occult Research Club's members' Dark and Troubled Pasts, the series stays idealistic for the most part. After all, seeing Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils all getting along and willing to work together isn't something you see every day.

Someday This Will Come in Handy: Back in volume 4, Sirzechs asks Issei what would happen if Issei used Gift on Rias's breasts then tells the latter not to worry about it, which obviously makes Issei think of a lot of crazy outcomes on what will happen. It mostly gets forgotten, until Volume 11 where the spirits of the past users of Boosted Gear bring it up again. It replenishes Issei's aura at the cost of Rias's breasts shrinking.

Spin-Offspring: This is what the EX spin-off is about, with the children of Rias, Akeno, Xenovia, Koneko, Irina, and Kuroka showing up.

Ophis displays zero interest in fighting, because if she ever got serious, she would destroy every opponent easily and thus finds fighting with anybody except Great Red pointless. Even when weakened, she's still double the strength of the two Heavenly Dragons.

And even she pales compared to what Great Red can do. He combines with Issei, made him Kaiju-sized, and told Issei to use his Dangerous Forbidden Technique (Longinus Smasher), and with some assistance by Grayfia and her group just to launch the enemy in the air, obliterates the giant monster who has an instant regeneration. All Issei could say after that was "Amazing".

There's also Son Wukong, who easily blocked the True Longinus with one finger and forced the entire Hero Faction to retreat.

Various from Sacred Gear to Sacred Gear. Kiba has the the ability to create swords with any special element he wants. Vali could Divide someone's power by two every ten seconds and Issei could double his own power by two every ten seconds. Gasper could stop time. Then there's Cao Cao who has the True Longinus that has 7 abilities which are all utterly broken such as the ability to destroy all weapons and a Attack Reflector.

Besides Sacred Gears there are people that are born into a special lineage which gives them special power exclusive to their family. Rias's family has the Power of Destruction, for example. Vali once again wins this lottery because he is the descendant of Lucifer thus he has great magic power that further boosts the power of his Sacred Gear by allowing him to feed his magic power for Juggernaut Drive which allows him to be the only person that could use this ability without drawback.

Supporting Harem: All the girls know that while Issei may love each and every one of them, Rias is the one to hold the title "legal wife". Doesn't mean that they'll let her get all the attention however. Rias is only more equal than the others by virtue of being their King and each relationship gets plenty of focus and development.

Surrounded by Idiots: Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils all suffer from this early in the series. The first few story arcs present the Fallen Angels as the default villains, but the leaders of all three factions are cool guys entirely willing to get along, while most of the trouble gets stirred up by their overzealous or rebellious subordinates. Largely phased out as they become The Alliance in favor of more external threats.

The Tohji, the "Familiar Master" in Volume 5. He is a middle-aged man who dresses and talks like Ash Ketchum/Satoshi is a not-too-kind jab at the Pokémon fandom, particularly adults who refuse to "let go." Ironically, Ichiei Ishibumi admits that he's a fan of Pokémon as a whole in the volume 8 afterword, and his artist told his editor to make that story. Also, in another bout of irony, The Tohji's Japanese VA Hisao Egawa voiced several characters in Pokémon.

EX and the Recap Episode of Hero were reportedly a "take that" at BorN, after Tetsuya Yanagisawa publicly revealed that he was the one who condensed volumes 5 to 7 into one 12-episode season over the objections of Ichiei Ishibumi and Takao Yoshioka.

When Issei first uses Balance Breaker, Ddraig warns him that it's only good for 10 seconds because Issei can't handle the stress of Boosted Gear. Yet, when he's fighting and talking against Riser, their conversation lasts for a few minutes while Ddraig is counting the number of seconds till Balance Breaker is up.

The anime fixes this, mostly by having Ddraig say he'll "count to ten" without actually specifying seconds. His count during the action is slower than seconds, but consistent, and the talk between Issei and Riser is much snappier.

Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Khaos Brigade, in general, is this. Ophis may be the overall leader, however the three main groups have different agendas. Vali's group is the closest one who wants to fulfill Ophis' wish to kick out Great Red from the dimension gap only because Vali wants to fight the strongest being. The Old Satan Faction only uses Ophis to regain Hell and wage another Forever War to prove that the devils are the strongest. The Hero Faction just wants to wipe out all the mythologies and prove that they're heroes.

There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Rizevim goes through complete hell on his way down to the afterlife. He's pursued by Fafnir in his dreams, curb-stomped by Issei in his D×D form, had his arm severed by Vali, and eventually attacked and snapped up by Fafnir.

There Is Only One Bed: Rias sleeps naked in Issei's bed and at that point, the latter doesn't love the former.

Those Two Guys: Matsuda and Motohama are never seen apart when they're around with Issei.

A Threesome Is Hot: The suspiciously accurate details the EX chapter gives about Koneko's and Kuroka's children heavily implies they were conceived on the same night.

Issei vs. Vali. The stubborn, passionate, and perverted as the Tiger. The cold, orderly, and sophisticated Vali as the Dragon.

Same goes with Rias vs. Akeno whenever they have a Cat Fight starting from Volume 4 onwards (episode 7 of season 2 in the anime). The easily jealous, childish Rias is the Tiger, and the calm, sadistic Akeno is the Dragon.

Time Crash: In EX, Loki travels to the past to cause havoc on the timeline and cause it to crash.

Time Travel: In EX, Issei's children have to travel to the past to capture Loki so they can study him and figure out how to undo a curse he put on Asia in the future.

In the anime, Raynare's mooks outright laugh at the trauma Raynere inflicted to Issei right in Rias's face when she's got the three of them trapped in a magical barrier. Even the lowest mooks of any faction know that she's very protective of her servants, and brutally vicious when enraged. The outcome was completelypredictable.

After Raynare is defeated, she toys with Issei's emotions in front of Rias and gets killed for it. Seriously, what was she thinking?

Tournament Arc: How a Rating Game works. In Volume 22 The International Ratings Game takes this to a whole new level.

Town with a Dark Secret: Kuoh town might seem like a fun place to live, but before Rias was in charge, let's just say a lot of problems have sprung up that came back to bite everyone else in the fourth arc.

Training from Hell: Rias's training of Issei is nothing but this. Later on, he gets subjected to this by Tannin who trains him literally in hell.

Transformation Is a Free Action: Invoked. When Issei is fighting Satan Red (Sirzechs in a Super Sentai outfit), he waits for Issei to transform into his Balance Breaker, because it's a rule that you can't attack someone while they're transforming.

Issei's PTSD is triggered when he hears and sees Raynare in his dreams.

Akeno's own PTSD is triggered whenever someone mentions her Fallen Angel father Baraqiel, until they reconcile thanks to Issei.

Trivial Title: "High School D×D". The story takes place at a high school, so the first part is justified, but "D×D"? Well, apart from being a Stealth Punnote "D×D" > "DD" > "Double-D", the title does come up a few times - firstly as the title of Great Red, the "Dragon of Dragons", and secondly as the name of a team created in Volume 16. In Volume 20 Issei's new form is called D×D.

A Truce While We Gawk: In volume 7 while an epic battle is going on, Issei somehow summons a breast god (yes, there is apparently one in the universe). When he announces this, everyone on both sides stops fighting and starts staring at him as if he's done something stupidly crazy again...

Two-Teacher School: The only teachers who are even active in this school are Azazel and Rossweisse. The only other one was an English teacher who was only there for one scene.

Tyrannicide: The Khaos Brigade's reign of terror in the Underworld is severely crippled when Katerea, Creuserey and Shalba are respectively killed by Azazel, Sirzechs and Issei.

Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: All the different mythologies are in this series, and the only thing that's keeping them from waging war with each other is that The Alliance (devils, fallen angels, and angels) wants to make peace with other mythologies. According to Sakra Indra, the other mythologies may be cooperating on the surface, but deep down they want to destroy the other mythologies.

Undeathly Pallor: Pure-blooded vampires are noted to have skin so pale that they don't seem to be alive.

Un-person: According to exposition during EX, when Loki and the Underworld Lifeforms wreak havoc in the past, they make sure that the Chichigami is incapable of contacting Issei in one timeline (although how they do it is unknown), preventing that particular timeline from learning about parallel dimensions. It's indicated that it eventually will be undone after Issei's children travel back in time to capture Loki, but EX ends on a Sequel Hook before it can happen.

Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Despite numerous amounts of Fanservice, this show averts it. Hell, even Issei expected that Rias was going to hit him when she caught Koneko and him naked. Turns out, Rias just examined Koneko and stated that she needed a doctor.

He also thought Koneko was gonna launch him when he accidently bumped into her during their swimming lessons. She ended up just thanking him for helping her with a Luminescent Blush on her cheeks and averted eyes.

Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Azazel's actions unintentionally lead to both Asia's death at the beginning of Volume 1 as well as Shuri's death when Akeno was a child, which caused a huge conflict between her and Baraqiel.

Valkyries: They exist in the universe, as Odin is a character within the story Later on, one of those Valkyries becomes Rias's new Rook, Rossweisse.

Episode 4 of BorN. During the battle against Loki, Issei and the others do battle against his minions. Mjölnir then arrives, and Issei is the only one present strong enough to wield it. As he goes for it, Fenrir leaps up and bites him, severely wounding him in the process.

Volume 20 of the light novel has Issei's parents be revealed of what Issei has become over the course of the series (See Broken Masquerade above) and Trihexa, a being that is theorized to possibly be able to kill Great Red, of all beings, is finally awakened.

Volume 21 ensures that Nothing Is the Same Anymore. In order to ensure Trihexa doesn't escape from its new seal, most of the faction leaders and their subordinates seal themselves with Trihexa in order to battle it for who knows how long. This includes Sirzechs, Serafall and Falbium and their peerages (minus the Queens), Michael, Raphael and Uriel and their Brave Saints (minus the Aces), Azazel, Odin and Zeus. And to top it all off, the media caught the battles in the human world, exposing the existence of the supernatural, and Rizevim and the Evil Dragons threw one last middle finger at the good guys by establishing contact with another dimension and sending information on teleportation techniques across, meaning that according to estimates, interdimensional war is imminent in thirty years.

What Does She See in Him?: It has been stated throughout the story from people from school are wondering why Rias and Asia are close to Issei later on Koneko, a church assassin named Xenovia, another church assassin-turned-angel named Irina, Akeno, and Ravel Phenex. If only they knew the crap he went through for the girls.

Whole Episode Flashback: While interspersed with current events, the entire Volume Fifteen will talk about the different pasts of other characters and other events that was never mentioned in the light novels.

Will They or Won't They?: Rias does love Issei, but it takes 10 light novel volumes before he finally says it back to her. Might have something to do with his dying on his first date at the start of the series.

Winged Humanoid: Everyone that's on one of the three factions. The Angels and their Fallen former comrades have the feathery kind (normal angels have white wings while those of Fallen Angels are black), Devil wings are more bat-like or perhaps Draconic.

World of Badass: It's much easier to count off the nonhumans who can't kick ass and take names. The only protagonist who can't hold her own in a fight is Asia, who more than earns her keep as The Medic and The Heart.

Would Hit a Girl: Pretty much almost every male in this series has no problems fighting against women at all. That said, Issei is still punished quite often for his perversions, usually by Koneko. It still manages to sidestep the Unprovoked Pervert Payback trope since Koneko does only lash out when provoked, and Issei takes the blow because he can be a sport when he knows he deserves it.

Wounded Gazelle Gambit: This one devil ruins an angel's life by suckering her into healing him - which is taboo for angelic healers of the church. Said devil gloats in Asia's face about this in volume 6.

Xanatos Speed Chess: The Rating Game is a team battle that involves adjusting the strategies in response to the opponents actions.

You Are Worth Hell: Issei goes through metric shit-tons of literal hell for all his friends. Fought Raynare when he rescues Asia, Riser for Rias when no one thought he'd win, defended Akeno when even she thought she was worthless, fought for Kiba to help him defeat his torturers from his past, helped Gaspar get past his severe misanthropy and shut-in problems, defended Koneko from her sister Kuroka and helped her accept her Nekomata powers. And the list just goes on.

You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Happens to a bunch of kids that were part of an illegal, forced experiment to wield holy swords. Turns out none of them were able to do it, and when the project was discovered later, it was shut down, and the kids were exterminated instead of freed. Kiba was one of the children, and the others sacrificed themselves in order to give him a chance to escape. He later vows Revenge for them, and Rias takes him in so that he could serve her instead of dying in the forest.

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